‘Community’ Won TV Guide’s Fan Poll

In the midst of getting yanked from NBC’s midseason schedule, “Community” has landed on the cover of the next TV Guide. Why? Oh, no big deal, it just has the internet’s most devoted fan base. Definitely not a reason to keep it on the air.

Roughly 300,000 people voted on TV Guide Magazine’s Facebook, and ‘Community’ bested many cult-hit shows including ‘Chuck’ and ‘The Vampire Diaries.’ The NBC series will be honored with three different covers for the Dec. 5 issue. The ‘Community’ issue hits newsstands Dec. 1.

“Because we don’t get nominated for awards, this is our fans’ outlet to tell us that they care,” ‘Community’ star Gillian Jacobs said in a statement. “They may not see us win Emmys or SAG Awards, but they do have the power in something like this to vote, and you see a lot of people care about our show.” [Aol TV]

I’m not going to beat my fists on the ground about “Community’s” eventual cancellation, but I WOULD like to take this opportunity to say that the Nielsen ratings and their stupid boxes can go directly to hell. The fact that broadcast networks still rely on that antiquated BS to determine whether shows live or die only makes me look forward to the day that the internet crashes the current business model into the ground. (And if Time Warner Cable goes with it, all the better.)

Ugh. My local NBC affiliate is claiming they’re showing a rerun of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” in Community’s timeslot on Thursday and that the new episode of Community’s playing on Saturday at 7:30pm. I’m not convinced it’s some form of NBC fuckery and not a mistake, but I’ll call shenanigans anyway.

Back in college, I interviewed for and accepted a job with Nielsen installing boxes. I never ended up taking it because it sucked, but the guy who interviewed me told me that I would need to carry a gun or knife because he has been shot at before.

I’m convinced that if there had been an accurate measure of viewership, Arrested Development would have turned out to have more viewers than 2.5 Men. Of course, half of this country will fight to the death to make their own waffles, so what the fuck do I know.

I’ve seen an article in which a tv executive explained that the ratings actually aren’t meant to measure how many people are watching a show, but rather to measure how many people are watching the ads. The same article said that DVR viewing only counts as live viewing if it’s played within 29 seconds of the start of the show, because after that it’s reasonable that you could have skipped an ad.

I’d love to know how exactly the DVR companies (who are undoubtedly providing this information) measure this so I can circumvent it. How does it know I’m not watching it while it’s recording? Is hitting play the only way for it to count? If so, I’m totally cool with hitting play and then walking away for the duration of a show.